Growth of graphene underlayers by chemical vapor deposition

Journal Article · Fri Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2013 · AIP Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4834975· OSTI ID:22251376

Fabiane, Mopeli; Khamlich, Saleh; Bello, Abdulhakeem; Dangbegnon, Julien; Momodu, Damilola; Manyala, Ncholu ^[1]; Charlie Johnson, A. T. ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Institute of Applied Materials, SARChI Chair in Carbon Technology and Materials, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0028 (South Africa)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (United States)

We present a simple and very convincing approach to visualizing that subsequent layers of graphene grow between the existing monolayer graphene and the copper catalyst in chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Graphene samples were grown by CVD and then transferred onto glass substrates by the bubbling method in two ways, either direct-transfer (DT) to yield poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/graphene/glass or (2) inverted transfer (IT) to yield graphene/PMMA/glass. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to reveal surface features for both the DT and IT samples. The results from FE-SEM and AFM topographic analyses of the surfaces revealed the underlayer growth of subsequent layers. The subsequent layers in the IT samples are visualized as 3D structures, where the smaller graphene layers lie above the larger layers stacked in a concentric manner. The results support the formation of the so-called “inverted wedding cake” stacking in multilayer graphene growth.

• OSTI ID: 22251376
• Journal Information: AIP Advances, Journal Name: AIP Advances Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 3; ISSN AAIDBI; ISSN 2158-3226
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
CATALYSTS
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
COPPER
FIELD EMISSION
GLASS
GRAPHENE
LAYERS
METHACRYLIC ACID ESTERS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SUBSTRATES
SURFACES